Just The Start
by Mac-alicious
Summary: because paint stains hid bruised knuckles better than the junk from Riley's makeup bag could cover up a black eye on Lucas's pretty face / / or, how one small act of aggression from Lucas started something that would follow them for years. Lucaya. Oneshot.


**A/N:** This is my first Lucaya one-shot. It was written post Girl Meets Rules, but references Girl Meets Flaws, Girl Meets Secret of Life, etc. It touches on a couple of my favorite Lucaya moments and builds from there, moving from middle school and then a jump to the end of high school. Because the chemistry between those two is ridiculous. It's one of three Lucaya focused one-shots I have waiting to post. So, you can look out for those. Stay tuned after the story for a Bonus "Scene," because a riled up Riley can be adorable. Enjoy! R&R! Thanks! ~Mac

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Girl Meets World.

 **Just The Start**

Ranger Rick was always supposed to be just Ranger Rick, nothing more, nothing less. Sure, Lucas was handsome in a wholesome, yee-haw everybody, admire my drawl, I'm the Topanga to Riley's Cory, chiseled perfection kind of way. But from the day they first laid eyes on him, he had Riley stamped all over him. Even if his smile could make the coldest heart melt and make every girl in a twenty mile radius swoon in unison, Maya never looked his way _in that way_.

Because, he was Lucas the Good, and Maya, the only good in her came from Riley. There was no point in looking at him in that way. This was the way of their world.

So Maya was struck dumb when Lucas's small act of aggression nearly bowled her over.

Yes, he had threatened Billy Ross in a similar manner, but he was never going to throw that punch. That, like much of what he did that week, was only meant to keep Maya from resorting to similar violence. With Billy, he was Lucas the Good playing at being bad—but on the surface he was still exactly what they thought he was. He was still joking and laughing, the eternal buddy, even with his fist raised.

This time there was something thrumming under the surface that wasn't there before. There was no humor in his eyes this time. He was all seriousness and the air was thick with the hostility oozing off of him. Everyone was seeing the scene play out, but Maya was sure that no one else was really _seeing it_ except her. She could feel it, the buzz of barely restrained fury. She was honed in on it, compelled toward it, because it was the same beat that vibrated deep in her chest. And though, he didn't throw a punch this time either, his control over himself and the way he dominated the situation made her insides flutter.

Suddenly, Maya could see herself seeing Lucas _that way_. It should have been an unwelcome change, but, oddly, it wasn't. It was different, yes, but it didn't change everything. He was still Huckleberry, first and foremost. He played the part of their moral compass for far too long for him not to revert right back to that role. Ninety-nine percent of the time, she ignored the ear to ear grin that made other girls giggle, bat their eyelashes, and fan themselves. Now that she knew about that other one percent though, there was a twinge of attraction when he got a certain look about him. But it wasn't anything more than that.

Lucas was still Riley's daydream, hers for the taking when she was ready. That was the way of their world. Besides, Maya was still hung up on Josh for the most part. One unattainable boy to pine over was enough for her.

Even if sometimes her daydreams belonged to strong hands, attached to a Texas drawl, tipping an imaginary cowboy hat too.

That was just where it started. It was not their beginning.

oOo

The ambiguous they said that nothing was just black and white, good or bad, right or wrong. But Maya was young and, with a life like hers, it was easier to draw a line between the two anyway. There were two sides to every coin and things were simpler when a person understood which side he or she fell on. When Maya drew the line between Good and Bad, she knew which side belonged to her and knew who she had trapped on the other side. In her head, she was on the wrong side of the line while Riley and Lucas were on the side of right and good. That worked for Maya. Riley needed to have someone like her, and as long as Maya was alone she couldn't be hurt. The point was they were supposed to occupy opposite sides of the line. That was the way of their world.

Now she knew that they were more alike than she ever thought. And now that she knew, it was hard to see how she had missed it? No one was one hundred percent anything; they couldn't be packed into one singular box, no matter how hard she tried. Maya liked dichotomy because it made everyone easy to define, but easy wasn't necessarily true. There was no set line between black and white, just the gray area that they all occupied. Take Lucas, even when he was bad, there was good in it. He got into fights, true, but it was always to protect his friends. He held back when the truly bad would plunge forward with fists flailing. He couldn't even bring himself to say out loud what he said to get detention, he had to text it in private. The truth was, that people had both sides of the coin in them; the key was figuring out which side landed up most of the time.

Maya didn't like that, because everything rode on people being either-or. As long as he was Lucas the Good, the righteous white night and she was Maya the bad, the broken, the wicked, the recklessness, then they were nothing alike. They had nothing in common. There was nothing to bring them together. She needed their differences to be absolute, because that was the only way that their similarities couldn't give her hope. Because hope was a heart breaker, a killer, an end all to the way of their world.

For so long, she was blind to their similarities, but now that she had clarity, she saw them everywhere. They grew and expanded to fill her vision. They were squeezing Riley out of the picture and that was no good. It couldn't be that way. Maya wouldn't allow it.

As much as full on Maya liked chaos, she knew there was a reason why they needed order. They needed order because rules and structure were the thing that was supposed to keep Lucas from following her out into the wild, unpredictable yonder. Rules wouldn't allow him to be "just like" her. Order made it so she didn't have to answer questions like, "what do I seem like to you?" Because the acceptable answers are all lies.

Maya was not allowed to say that she saw something of herself reflecting back at her when she looked at Lucas that close up. She was not allowed to say that he had the potential trapped in him to be Mad Dog if that was what he wanted. She wasn't allowed to say that because he wasn't allowed to want that and she wasn't allowed to want him to want that. There was no use in creating that possibility. It was better if he thought he was the lamb that Mary had, because Mad Dog didn't end up with Princess Dancing Sunshine and that was the only acceptable ending for their stories. It was as simple as that. She had enough difficult in her life; she didn't need Lucas to complicate things for her even more.

This was not their beginning, because they were never supposed to have a beginning.

oOo

Maya once said that the only thing that kept the demons inside her at bay was Riley. Her best friend's goodness and innocence was so all encompassing that it followed them around like a tangible aura. Without Riley around, there was nothing to stop Maya from going Lord of the Flies on the halls of their high school. Riley made her the best version of herself. Eventually, she began to think Riley did the same for Lucas.

This became clear near the beginning of their senior year. Before then, through the years, there had been a few almost fights. Zay kept running his mouth and Lucas felt obligated to protect him and his flat butt. It never went further than Lucas showing a little aggressive flair, before people learned to steer clear of their set of friends as often as possible. That was when he was dating Riley, for real this time, so even though Maya would give a shiver every time she witnessed that little bit of bad in him, she didn't let anyone else see that. It was one thing to look at him like that when they were kids, and were all friends on an even field. It was an entirely different thing to covet her best friend's boyfriend every time he got a certain spark of fire in his eyes.

Then, suddenly, he wasn't her best friend's boyfriend. In the summer before senior year, Riley decided that, while he was her first great romance, Lucas was not her forever love. What prompted this realization, even Maya didn't know. Whatever may have brought it on, Lucas seemed to agree. He even said that he was a couple weeks off of calling it quits himself. As sudden as it was, it didn't change much. The couple dissolved and they all went back to being friends all around for the rest of the summer. It should have been fine, but everything changed again.

That fall, Riley expanded her social circle and starting dating someone new, someone they hadn't known since middle school. Busier with other things, she left Lucas and Maya to their own devices. They inevitably slipped into old habits, Lucas faster than Maya. Without Riley around to temper him, Maya feared she was too bad an influence on him. He was in a real fight within a few weeks of the start of the semester.

Maya never got around to hearing what provoked the fight, nor was she around to see it. She had been closed up in the art studio working on a painting when the fist fight broke out in the boys' locker room. Rumors spread like wildfire though and by the time Lucas joined them at their lunch table sporting a shiner and split lip, Farkle had heard he had Kung fu'd his way through twelve guys, Riley had collected three separate accounts that said the other guy was in the hospital, and Maya wasn't sure who threw the first punch. Lucas evaded their questions and kept his head down in a move eerily familiar to the way Maya acted after receiving detention.

"You're lucky you didn't get caught, or killed, or expelled," Riley said in between glances toward her boyfriend's table across the cafeteria. With the lunch hour half over, it was almost time for her to head over there. She tried to split her time evenly, but the boy always seemed to come out with a little more of her.

"Think about your scholarships," Farkle added. "You can't let someone else's stupidity ruin your future."

"It's nothing," Lucas insisted, digging his fork into his plate. "It won't happen again."

Lucas making light of the situation, like it wasn't a big deal, doubled with the fact that Maya's first thought after seeing him was that he could do with looking a little less perfect, made it obvious that May couldn't let this happen.

When Lucas walked with her to class after lunch—Riley was with her boyfriend and Farkle's next class was on the other side of the building, so it was just the two of them together everyday—he bumped his side against hers. She was still the short stack of pancakes she had always been and the slight nudge almost sent her sprawling. She would have gone over if his quick reflexes hasn't reached out and caught her by her elbow, pulling her back in close to his side. He didn't apologize, just matched her stride and kept going.

"You were quiet at lunch," Lucas said. His tongue poked out to probe his split lip and Maya wanted to pinch herself for letting her eyes fall to watch it. "Is it because you agree with them? You gonna tell me I shouldn't be fighting?"

Maya stopped short of her classroom and Lucas pulled up to face her. She squinted her eyes as she looked up at him. It was hard to meet his eyes; he shone so brilliantly that it was almost like trying to stare at the sun. She was almost blinded by him. Even with his battle wounds, there was no stopping the inherent gorgeous quality of his features from shining through. Before she could stop herself, she reached up and brushed her thumb over the bruise forming under his eye. Maybe she imagined it, but he seemed to lean into her touch. She snapped her hand back to her side before she could find out for sure.

"You shouldn't be fighting," Maya said each word carefully, because if she didn't, her tongue might spit different ones out.

"You know what it's like, Maya," Lucas licked his lip again, but Maya was _not_ looking at his lips. "If you had heard what he said—"

"It doesn't matter what the guy said about Zay—" Maya replied.

"Who said anything about Zay?" Lucas's eyebrows knit together.

"The fight wasn't about Zay?" Maya matched his frown. "Isn't it always about Zay?"

Lucas shook his head slowly. "You've always wanted us to stick up for you. I've kept up my end of the bargain. You'd do the same for me, wouldn't ya, Short Stack?"

"You know I would, Ranger Rick," Maya fought off the hint of smile that threatened to appear as she realized this was about her. She couldn't encourage him. She took a step back and turned her eyes to the floor. "But the others are right. You have a future to worry about. You can't be doing things like this. Why don't you leave the rabble rousing to nobodies like me who ain't got nowhere better to go."

Before Lucas could see through her, Maya pivoted around and went straight into her classroom.

"You aren't a nobody, Maya, that's the point," Lucas called after her.

Maya pretended not to hear him, because she had no other choice. The Riley on him might have been fading, but there were still traces of it. Even if Lucas was throwing his first real punches in years for her, Maya couldn't paint herself over him. It would end up ruining them both.

This was not their beginning, because she couldn't let it be.

oOo

After that, Maya had to get proactive. What happened was this: she kept her ears and eyes open for anything that might set Lucas off, and she _resolved_ the problem before it could get back to him. It was better that way, because paint stains hid bruised knuckles better than the junk from Riley's makeup bag could cover up a black eye on Lucas's pretty face. Suddenly, there was that hint of good in all the bad she was doing. She was something of a masked vigilante superhero roaming the halls to knockout threats before they could wreak havoc on the foundations her group was united upon. She was protecting her _friend_ from himself. It didn't need to be mentioned that she was also protecting herself because if she could keep Lucas on the right side of good then she couldn't have him. She could stop hopelessly imagining that he could ever see her in _that way_ too.

She thought she had been mostly discreet about what she was doing behind the scenes. Her stealth was key to her plan working. Like most things in her life, it didn't turn out exactly how she expected. If there was ever time she wished she could have a predictable, ordinary, easy life, it was now.

Somehow, word got around that Maya had stabbed someone with a paintbrush or something equally stupid and entirely exaggerated. She didn't go around doling out mortal wounds, that wasn't her style. She might kick a few shins, or if they were especially vile, maybe she would go for their noses—or on a rare occasion where the vile got crude, she might add a knee to the groin if she was feeling particularly offended. It never took anyone more than a couple minutes to get back on their feet and dust themselves off. So, she had no idea how the rumor originated, only that it started during second period and by the time lunch rolled around, it was her that everyone was looking at. As she headed to her usual table, people stumbled to clear a path for her, which she thought was overkill. It didn't stop her from carrying a paintbrush tucked behind her ear, because the looks it got amused her. And if said paintbrush was stained red from its last contact with paint, then that was just a hilarious coincidence.

The looks on her friends' faces when she sat down were not amusing at all. She plucked the paintbrush from its perch and stowed it away in a pocket of her backpack. If she stayed quiet, she wasn't admitting to anything. That was her plan: silent denial. Only, Riley was glaring daggers and Lucas wasn't looking at her, so it was hard not to speak up when no one else would say anything.

"What?" Maya finally relented.

"How could you, Maya?" Riley launched in.

"You're not going to even ask me if it's true?" Maya said. "Are we done with giving Maya the benefit of the doubt?"

"Are you saying you didn't do it?" Farkle asked. At least he was looking at her with his usual neutral expression.

"Of course I didn't do it, you doughnuts," Maya said. It technically wasn't a lie. She hadn't actually been in any kind of fight, armed with art supplies or not, in more than a week. "Personally, I respect my paintbrushes too much to use them as a weapon. I mean, all the blood would ruin them."

"This is serious," Riley said.

"It wasn't a joke, Riles," Maya said. "It never happened and I don't know how anyone thought it had. But I'm glad that at least my best friends have faith in me."

Riley sighed, "I have faith in you, Maya. But this isn't the first time we've heard about something like this lately. This is just the first time _everybody_ was talking about it at the same time."

"Well, geez, imagine if everyone believed all the rumors about you," Maya said. "You should hear some of the things people will say behind your backs."

Most of those things were no longer being said in fear of bringing down Maya's wrath, but she couldn't tell them that.

Her eyes fell on the silent Lucas, "You have anything to say about this?"

Lucas looked up to meet her eyes for a second before he returned his gaze to his tray where he was picking at his lunch with a fork. Apparently, he had nothing to add. At least she had been successful on one front, albeit in a roundabout way. She had pushed Lucas away—not by raising him up out of her reach, but by lowering herself to a depth that couldn't be spanned. All at once, she regretted everything.

"Thanks a lot," Maya said and stood up. She was halfway to the exit before she realized she had forgotten her things, but she wasn't going to turn back now.

"Wait, Maya! Don't go," Riley yelled after her, but she didn't turn back.

She didn't glance back until a second before the exit. She expected all eyes to be on her, and they were. Except one pair. His fork had still, but Lucas's head was still faced down at the table.

This was not their beginning. There was a good chance it was their ending.

oOo

Maya hid in the girls' bathroom until the bell sounded to end the lunch period. The only thing she had with her was her phone, which had been in her pocket and, thankfully, not in her bag. At first, it was a great distraction that kept her from obsessing over what had happened. Then, Riley started texting her and she kind of wanted to flush it down the toilet before she could read them. She refrained from destroying the phone. Instead, she turned it off before she yielded to temptation and opened the messages.

If she could get through the rest of the day, then she would have more time to figure out how to talk to her friends again. This was a bay window situation if there ever was one, but there were still a few hours between her and that window. So, she took a deep breath and left the bathroom.

A hand reached out and grabbed her as soon as she stepped out into the hall. It dragged her into an alcove beneath the staircase. When Maya finally got her footing back, she came face to face with Lucas. In the hand that wasn't still wrapped around her elbow, he held her bag. Maya snatched the bag away from him with her free arm.

"Did you draw the short straw or something?" Maya asked as she slung the strap over her shoulder.

"No, I wanted to find you," Lucas was frowning at her the way he had that day when their roles were reversed. "I had half a mind to go in there after you, but I realized that might be viewed as inappropriate."

"Wouldn't want that, would we, Cowboy?"

"It wouldn't be the worst rumor about us," Lucas said. He moved his hand down from her elbow to her wrist, forcing her to turn her hand over for him. He ran his thumb over the fading bruises across her knuckles. "But I'd be afraid that you'd go around taking shots at anyone who tried to spread it, and I think these pretty fingers of yours have done enough damage. They have a more remarkable purpose to serve in this world."

Maya pulled her hand away. "I told you that I didn't do it. Do you not believe me either?"

"I believe you didn't stab someone with a paintbrush. I mean, that's ridiculous. How would you have managed that? Did you sharpen the end to weaponize it? Hardly likely," Lucas said. "Besides, whittling is my thing."

Maya pinched her lips together so she wouldn't accidentally laugh at his jab at himself. "You didn't say anything at lunch. You wouldn't even look at me."

"I didn't want to say anything in front of the others," Lucas replied, "because I know what you've been doing. You've been fighting so I don't have to. I just can't figure out why."

"I told you why. You could ruin your future and I don't have one anyway, so—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, because that's stupid. You have as bright a future as any of us. We both know that. So, why don't you try again."

"Riley broke up with you and without her good influence, the first thing you did was get in a fist fight," Maya figured there was no use in pretending anymore. He was just going to use his kind eyes and sweet words to pry it out of her eventually. She might as well get it over with. "And that's not the way it's supposed to be."

"Wait, do you think that guy was the first person to say something nasty after Riley broke up with me?" Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"Wasn't he?" Maya hugged her arms around herself, hiding her bruised hand under her arm.

"Hell no," Lucas swore and Maya straightened her shoulders. "There were guys making assumptions right out of the gate, about Riley, about me. There were even a couple that suggested things about Riley and Farkle. Not to mention Zay and his normal lack of social grace stirring up all kinds of trouble."

"What made that guy different then?" Maya had to ask, because he would tell her the truth, she knew it.

"He was the first one to say something about you," Lucas tapped her chin, so she would meet his eyes.

"That can't be true. I do things all the time that must get people talking. There's no way that he was the first," Maya said. She held his gaze, daring him to hide the truth again.

"He was the first one to imply that Riley broke up with me because I was unfaithful, _with you_ ," Lucas revised his statement and Maya's eyes widened. "I overheard him telling his friends that if you were desperate enough to break up your best friend's relationship that it would probably easy for all of them to have a run at you."

"I doubt he was quite so polite when he said it," Maya said. She squeezed herself tighter, digging her nails into her arms to keep her emotions level.

"I may be paraphrasing," Lucas agreed. "I heard him and his friends laughing and I snapped. I couldn't control myself. I only hit him once, but I think I broke his nose. The black eye and lip were courtesy of his friends who pulled me off of him. He told the nurse he got hit with equipment during gym, but he'll think of me if he ever breathes your name again."

"You see," Maya watched the expressions shift on Lucas's face as he told his story. "That's why I've been doing what I've been doing. That look on your face, right there. That satisfied half smirk. You know what you did was wrong, but you're content with the results. You can't think like that. He won't be the last person to say something like that. I'm a girl. Being called easy by moronic boys is a fact of life."

"But it shouldn't be."

"Yes, but you may be the last gentleman in this city, Cowboy," Maya said. "I need you to stay a gentleman; and you can't do that if you go around protecting my honor by punching anyone who threatens it."

"You're fighting so I can stay a gentleman?" Lucas was looking at her like she was speaking another language. "Why?"

"Why did you fight to protect my honor?" Maya countered.

They were in a standoff. Neither answered the other's question. The halls had cleared into their next classes long ago, so the two of them waited in the silence of the school for the other to break down. This time, it wasn't Maya that crumbled first.

"I thought about it like this: if that's what people were saying when nothing had happened between you and me, I couldn't imagine what they might say if anything ever did happen between us," Lucas said. "And I didn't ever want to be the one to _threaten your honor_."

"Are you saying that you're afraid you might have a negative influence on me? _You_ , Lucas the Good?" Maya felt a stupid grin growing on her face.

"I wish you wouldn't call me that. I actually prefer Ranger Rick or Huckleberry," Lucas replied. "I'm not Lucas the Good anymore, not like I used to be."

"That's what I was afraid of," Maya said. "I wanted you to stay perfect, so I could know for sure that you were too good for me, so it wouldn't be so hard knowing I couldn't have you."

"I've never been perfect, Maya. I've certainly never been too good for you," Lucas made her uncross her arms so he could take her hands in his. "I'm pretty sure that wanting you the way I have, even when I wasn't supposed to, means I'm the one that's not good enough for you."

Maya stared at their entwined hands, unable to say anything. She couldn't agree with him, but if she disagreed then he would argue with her until she gave in. It was better to stay quiet.

"Maybe it's time we stopped fighting for each other and started fighting _for_ each other," Lucas said, squeezing her hands tightly. And just like that, the way of their world as they knew it ended.

Ranger Rick was always supposed to be Ranger Rick, nothing more, nothing less.

So, Maya was struck dumb when Lucas pulled her into him, drew her up until he could meld his lips with hers, and became _everything_.

It occurred to her, as she wrapped her arms around him and he twined his fingers into her hair tugging slightly, that there was just enough good in her and just enough bad in him, for them to be perfectly matched. They might bring out the worst in each other, but it was possible that they had just as much potential to bring out the best in each other. For the moment, that felt true. He nipped at her lips and she soothed him with her tongue, she dug her nails into his skin and he ghosted his fingertips across hers. They counteracted each other, creating balance that they had never known before.

Maya would need to have a couple Bay Window conversations later, but until then, she was going to enjoy this moment.

This was just the start of something bigger than themselves. This was their beginning.

-fin-

 **EXTRA: Bonus "Scene"**

When Maya turned on her phone later, after she and Lucas had kissed themselves breathless and took a break to sneak out of the school and talk about what they were doing, it was flooded with texts—one after another from Riley. The highlights of which include:

Messages number one through three: ' _I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!'_

Message six: _'I mean, who would stab someone with a paintbrush? Farkle says there are far more effective weapons.'_

Message seven: _'That was not a suggestion to find better weapons!'_

Message Eleven: _'Are you ignoring me because you hate me? Please don't hate me! I'll be at the Bay Window when you're ready to talk.'_

Message Twelve: _'Seriously, I'll sit right here until you come over. I won't move an inch even if it takes YEARS.'_

Message Thirteen: _'Don't let me grow old here.'_

Message Fourteen: _'Okay, I got hungry. But I was only gone two minutes, tops. And I'm back now. Waiting…'_

Message Seventeen: _'Come on, Maya. I'm gullible when you're not around. I try not to be, but people are so convincing.'_

Message Eighteen: _'I'm too trusting. It's my fatal flaw.'_

Message Nineteen: _'So, I shouldn't believe it when someone says you cut class to make out with Lucas under some stairs, right? RIGHT?'_

Message Twenty: _'But if it is true, it's about time. I love it. YAY!'_

-end-


End file.
